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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name

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Speaker 1: is Robert Land and I'm Joe McCormick, and I was

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Speaker 1: about to say it's Saturday, but it's not Saturday though.

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Speaker 1: Today is a vault episode. Rob and I are out

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Speaker 1: this week for spring break, so we are sharing with

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Speaker 1: you an episode that originally published April. This is part

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Speaker 1: one of our Medusa series. Yeah, this is a lot

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Speaker 1: of fun. Hey, you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.

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Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And hey,

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Speaker 1: it's Halloween in April. I'm so excited because we decided

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Speaker 1: it's got to be monster time here on Stuff to

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Speaker 1: Blow your Mind, even though it's not October yet. You know,

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Speaker 1: we we can't put all the monsters in October. There's

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Speaker 1: too much monster. Yeah, what would we talk about the

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Speaker 1: rest of the year if we didn't occasionally check in

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Speaker 1: with the monstrous denizens of the dark. And we have

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Speaker 1: a great one here for a couple of episodes. Because

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Speaker 1: there's there's just so much about it, so much about her.

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Speaker 1: We're going to be talking about the Gorgon, the most

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Speaker 1: famous of the three Gorgons, Medusa. Now Medusa is just

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Speaker 1: fascinating and enthralling figure, often above and beyond the source material.

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Speaker 1: But perhaps it's the perfect balance of the sort of

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Speaker 1: counterintuitive aspects in her being, or or sort of the

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Speaker 1: the shadow archetypes that seemed to resonate behind her. But

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Speaker 1: she is a long burning monstrosity in the minds of humanity.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean this is I'm so excited about

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Speaker 1: this pair of episode. So just to give you a

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Speaker 1: little bit of a roadmap, I think in this first

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Speaker 1: episode here we're going to be mostly discussing the ancient

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Speaker 1: Greek myths of Medusa the origins of those myths, and

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Speaker 1: then later on in in part two, we're going to

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Speaker 1: explore more of the later interpretations of Medusa and how

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Speaker 1: she might apply to some interesting scientific and cultural topics.

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Speaker 1: But this, this is such rich territory. I don't know

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Speaker 1: if there is a richer monster out there than Medusa,

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Speaker 1: other than maybe the vampire archetype. Indeed, this is this

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Speaker 1: is fertile soil. And we we've talked about doing an

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Speaker 1: episode on Medusa for years. Uh it's one we've kind

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Speaker 1: of uh kicked around, but this time we're covering it

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Speaker 1: because uh, my son urged me to do it. So

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Speaker 1: here we are he's about to turn eight years old,

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Speaker 1: and since we couldn't actually go anywhere for spring break

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Speaker 1: due to the pandemic, we did kind of a makeshift

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Speaker 1: camp here at the house. We did a myth and

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Speaker 1: mushrooms camp. So my wife did a lot of mushroom

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Speaker 1: related crafts and activities with them, mushroom growing kid and

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Speaker 1: going out and you know, looking for mushrooms. And then, uh,

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Speaker 1: we both partook of a lot of mythology with him,

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Speaker 1: given the boy's recent enthrallment with it due to the

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Speaker 1: Percy Jackson novels by Rick Ryerdon I've heard of those,

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Speaker 1: but I don't know anything about them. So they have

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Speaker 1: something to do with with great myth. Oh yeah, they're

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Speaker 1: They're full of Greek myth. You know. It's it's sort

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Speaker 1: of a post Terry potter um world where you have

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Speaker 1: a you know, a boy, a young boy slash teen

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Speaker 1: by the name of Percy Jackson who is Percy Us

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Speaker 1: and he's encountering all the gods and monsters you would expect.

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Speaker 1: And yeah, it's the book seemed to be a lot

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Speaker 1: of fun, uh for the kids. And more to the

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Speaker 1: point it it gets them into mythology. I was talking

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Speaker 1: with Alison louder Milk about it and she said there

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Speaker 1: her son had gone through a phase of being just

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Speaker 1: super into Greek mythology because of it. Um, so, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, we were, you know, we really got into

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Speaker 1: the mythology and Medusa really stood out to him. So

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Speaker 1: of course we watched the original nineteen eight one Clash

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Speaker 1: of the Titans, which features a very memorable Medusa sequence.

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Speaker 1: We also watched the nineteen nineties series Jim Hinson's The

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Speaker 1: Storyteller Greek Myths, which is excellent and features an episode

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Speaker 1: about the Gorgon's actually just watched this last night at

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Speaker 1: your recommendation. It's uh, it's streaming right now on the Yeah.

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Speaker 1: The episode about Perseus and the gorgon medusas is just

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Speaker 1: wonderful and it has great narration by Michael Gambon. Is

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Speaker 1: that Yeah, he plays the storyteller in this one. Uh. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: all four episodes are as of this recording anyway on

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Speaker 1: Amazon Prime. So yeah, they're they're they're wonderful, fun you

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Speaker 1: get what. Orpheus is one of the episodes of the

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Speaker 1: Minotaur and uh and Icarus and Datalus and of course

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Speaker 1: you know. With with my son, we also were reading

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Speaker 1: a lot of Carol Rose, one of my favorite monster

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Speaker 1: chroniclers and Folklori's and the boy himself absolutely demolished Deal

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Speaker 1: Larry's Book of Greek Myths, that nineteen sixty two illustrated

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Speaker 1: book that I know a lot of us grew up with.

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Speaker 1: So there's something I always wonder about with with ancient mythology,

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Speaker 1: including Greek myth and and that's that I I since

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Speaker 1: a couple of things are intention when you're you're exposing

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Speaker 1: children to them. Uh. One is that I feel like

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Speaker 1: kids are naturally drawn to mythology, like they just eat

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Speaker 1: it up, they love it. But at the same time,

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Speaker 1: a lot of ancient myths are just full of obscene

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Speaker 1: cruelty and stuff that like, uh, you know, the stuff

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Speaker 1: that that I don't always remember from the tellings of

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Speaker 1: those myths that I got when I was a kid,

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Speaker 1: I must have gotten some kind of sanitized versions of them.

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Speaker 1: Often do you find that a lot of that is

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Speaker 1: going on? And oh, yeah, yeah, Because on one hand,

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Speaker 1: some of the versions that he's he's reading, you know,

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Speaker 1: they they've sanitized it to a certain extent. You know,

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Speaker 1: certainly with Percy Jackson. Uh, certainly with this this really

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Speaker 1: cool comics series called The Olympians that I also recommend

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Speaker 1: um and then also the Book of Greek Myths does

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Speaker 1: that as well. But that he'll also come up and

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Speaker 1: he'll he'll tell me about some just awful detail from

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Speaker 1: a myth where somebody, you know, killed their parents or

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Speaker 1: their sign or something, and I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: Greek myths, Uh, a lot of horrible stuff happens in them,

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Speaker 1: and and a lot of these tales are are tragic.

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Speaker 1: And then of course one of the ironies of these

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Speaker 1: episodes is that, uh, as we really dive into the

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Speaker 1: origin story in the varied origin stories of Medusa, like

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Speaker 1: some of them are just very brutal in in a

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Speaker 1: way where I probably can't let him listen to these episodes. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and I understand that. I mean, I think we'll try

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Speaker 1: not to dwell on the most obscene and cruel aspects

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Speaker 1: of these myths, but they are ancient myths. A lot

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Speaker 1: of ancient myths have obscene in cruel elements, So do

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Speaker 1: be prepared that kind of thing is coming. Yeah, So

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Speaker 1: if you're listening with children at cetera, Yeah, I know

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Speaker 1: that this is it's going to get into some really

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Speaker 1: dark territories, so you might want to scout it out first,

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Speaker 1: is all I'm saying. Yeah, now, you know we've mentioned

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Speaker 1: Jim Hinson Clash of the Titans. These are examples. Will

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Speaker 1: come back to it again and again because a lot

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Speaker 1: of times these are these are introductions to these worlds.

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Speaker 1: Percy Jackson uh is often an introduction to Greek mythology,

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Speaker 1: for for for younger folks these days. Um, Dungeon and

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Speaker 1: Dragons is another big one. Medusa has long resided within

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Speaker 1: the Monster Manual, where she's sort of she sort of

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Speaker 1: becomes a species unto herself. Oh, can you play as

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Speaker 1: a Medusa? I'm I'm sure somebody there's I'm sure there

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Speaker 1: have been some homebrew rules at some point, or even

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Speaker 1: some official rules for playing a gorgon. Yeah, but um,

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Speaker 1: but I'm not aware of them offhand. It would be

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Speaker 1: It's one of those things would be kind of hard

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Speaker 1: to h if you really have petrifying gaze, Like how

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Speaker 1: do you run like that in a tavern? I'm a

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Speaker 1: gorgon bard So all these audiences hate me. So all

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Speaker 1: of these are very much downstream versions of the myth

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Speaker 1: of Medusa, and some of you might, you know, you

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Speaker 1: might have have this sort of instinct to criticize any

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Speaker 1: discussion of the mythic creature, to begin with via such

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Speaker 1: recent pop culture expressions like Percy Jackson or Clash of

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Speaker 1: the Titans, which you know at times certainly plays fast

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Speaker 1: and loose with the myth. But one thing we have

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Speaker 1: to keep in mind is that pretty much all versions

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Speaker 1: of Medusa or any mythological tale are a downstream product,

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Speaker 1: the result of centuries upon centuries of oral tradition, various

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Speaker 1: tellings and retellings, various written accounts and references, cross references,

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Speaker 1: continually and perpetual reshaping the myth and the monster itself

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Speaker 1: to tell better stories, to impart specific cultural ideas, or

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Speaker 1: to merge with other tales or other belief systems. So yes,

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Speaker 1: while watching Clash of the Titans, which uh, you know

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Speaker 1: that was that was big for me, introducing me to

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Speaker 1: a lot of mythological ideas because it was always on

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Speaker 1: td S or T and T back in the day.

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Speaker 1: But but watching that it can be frustrating because we

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Speaker 1: inevitably recoil from you know, at the tale being told

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Speaker 1: one way and not another. Of liberties being taken the

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Speaker 1: influence of modern ideas and narratives like Star Wars, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, obviously being in play in the creation of

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Speaker 1: this movie. But to a large extent, this was always

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Speaker 1: the way with myths. This there is often this illusion

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Speaker 1: of solidarity with the Greek, with Greek mythology, because all

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Speaker 1: these various tales come to be largely canonized within certain

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Speaker 1: major works uh, such as those of say Hesiod and

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Speaker 1: Ovid who will discuss us and then much later in

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Speaker 1: key modern mythology books. So much in the same way

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Speaker 1: that there is no one unchanging you. There is no

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Speaker 1: single unchanging Medusa. It is a creature that spans the ages,

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Speaker 1: altering its form along the way, sometimes slightly, sometimes in

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Speaker 1: major ways, while retaining certain aspects that resonate with us

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Speaker 1: on a on a truly universal level. Yeah, I mean, uh,

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Speaker 1: it's a very good point. The same way that modern

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Speaker 1: authors are sometimes cleaning up myths for you to make

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Speaker 1: them more palatable to children, or to make them more

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Speaker 1: acceptable to the morals of the day, or even not

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Speaker 1: not even just the moral Sometimes myths I think are

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Speaker 1: altered just to sort of make them more acceptable to

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Speaker 1: the narrative logic that's dominant within a within an era

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Speaker 1: um that was going on back then too. Yeah, So

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Speaker 1: it's just all I think, always something to keep in mind. Boy.

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Speaker 1: It's a hard thing to explain to to a young

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Speaker 1: person though, because like my son really wants he wants

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Speaker 1: the cannon version of the tail and he's they're into correcting, uh,

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Speaker 1: film adaptations and all, and I have to kind of

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Speaker 1: explain to them. It's like, well, you know, there's not

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Speaker 1: really just one story. There's no you know, there's this this,

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Speaker 1: This is a great point. I feel like children are

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Speaker 1: naturally cannon pedants? Why is that? Why is it that

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Speaker 1: when you're I was when I was a little kid,

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Speaker 1: and now I abhor that kind of thinking, but that's

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Speaker 1: absolutely how I was when I encounter all kinds of

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Speaker 1: mythology as a child, with Star Wars, with you know,

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Speaker 1: with everything. Why why are kids obsessive about cannon and

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Speaker 1: turn always turned to cannon pedantry? I guess A part

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Speaker 1: of a big part of it is, you know, you

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Speaker 1: look to your parents and authority figures you know, adjacent

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Speaker 1: to your parents, as as being the providers of truth

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Speaker 1: of telling you how the world works. And it's it's

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Speaker 1: only later that you really begin to understand that it's

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Speaker 1: not so cut and dry that your parents didn't have

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Speaker 1: it all figured out, that you have to figure some

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Speaker 1: out the stuff out for yourself, and something are beyond

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Speaker 1: figuring out or just sort of amorphous, like uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: the true nature of a mythological being. And then certainly

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Speaker 1: if they're if they're really into something like say Harry Potter,

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Speaker 1: like there is one version of Harry Potter, you know,

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Speaker 1: I mean, it is, it is, it is whatever J. K.

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Speaker 1: Rowling says it is. You know. So, um, it's hard

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Speaker 1: to compare. You can't really compare that to Greek myth. Well,

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Speaker 1: so maybe the place that we should start with here

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Speaker 1: is to try to give a basic retelling of the

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Speaker 1: main myths of the Gorgon, the main myths and Medusa

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Speaker 1: and Perseus um. What with the understanding that there are

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Speaker 1: a lot of different versions of these myths, and different

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Speaker 1: things will come in that we can explain as we

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Speaker 1: go on, but it probably makes sense to start with

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Speaker 1: a coherent version of the story. Absolutely, yeah, what uh? What?

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Speaker 1: Author David A. Limming in Medusa in the Mirror of

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Speaker 1: Time two thousand eighteen book referred to as quote, what

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Speaker 1: can reason to be called a canonical myth of Medusa. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think that's a decent way of putting it. And

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Speaker 1: that David Lemming book you mentioned Medusa in the Mirror

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Speaker 1: of Time, that that's going to be one of our

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Speaker 1: main sources over the course of these episodes. That's that's

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Speaker 1: a great, short, succinct book that captures a lot of

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Speaker 1: what's interesting about the Medusa myth. Uh, And so we'll

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Speaker 1: be referring to him a lot throughout these episodes. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: David A. Lemming is a Narritus Professor of English and

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Speaker 1: Comparative Literature at the University of Connecticut, and he's an

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Speaker 1: author of various works on myth. Yeah, and his his

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Speaker 1: this book is is well worth checking out. Before we

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Speaker 1: do that, however, we're going to take a quick break,

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Speaker 1: but we'll be right back. All right, we're back, So

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Speaker 1: it's time to tell the story of Medusa. Now. Of course,

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Speaker 1: as we said earlier, there are a lot of versions

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Speaker 1: of the Medusa story. This is a theme that evolves

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Speaker 1: over time, and we'll discuss the shifting canon as we

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Speaker 1: go on, but at the beginning here, it would probably

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Speaker 1: be best to start with the most commonly received version

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Speaker 1: of the myths of Medusa and Perseus. And I'll try

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Speaker 1: to summarize the story as best I can, um, relying

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Speaker 1: a lot on on work by David Lemming that we

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Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, but also with a bit of poetic color

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Speaker 1: from Ovid's telling in the Metamorphoses, the Garthen Dryden translation. Uh.

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Speaker 1: That we should note that though Ovid's telling is far

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Speaker 1: from the earliest, it's where some of the best known

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Speaker 1: aspects of the story come from today. Absolutely, And Uh,

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Speaker 1: one other thing I want to point out that will

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Speaker 1: become obvious is that, you know, we tend to refer

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Speaker 1: to this story is that of of Perseus and Medusa,

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Speaker 1: and that it is you know, that is that the

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Speaker 1: key conflict, uh, that we tend to focus on, and

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Speaker 1: it's the conflict that is brought out in these various

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Speaker 1: cinematic adaptations. But I think in some respects it's almost

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Speaker 1: more fair to consider it the story of Athena and

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Speaker 1: Medusa featuring Perseus. And we'll get into that as we go. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And it's weird how Perseus can, sometimes, even though he's

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Speaker 1: ostensibly the hero of the story, feel kind of like

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Speaker 1: a little like Paul on or game piece that's being

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Speaker 1: moved around by various powers. Yeah, we're just a character

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Speaker 1: of chaos that is just occasionally nudged in different directions

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Speaker 1: by more powerful entities. Yeah. Okay, So, according to some

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Speaker 1: of the most ancient sources of the actual Medusa myth

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Speaker 1: as opposed to just sort of like the imagery of Medusa. Um,

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Speaker 1: this will be especially the Greek poet Hesiod, who would

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Speaker 1: have been writing in the seventh or eighth century b c. E.

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Speaker 1: Medusa was originally descended from a family of primordial gods

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Speaker 1: and monsters. The original being in this lineage of gods

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Speaker 1: and monsters was Gaya, who is the personification of the

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Speaker 1: Earth itself. And at first Guya was without a mate,

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Speaker 1: so she conceived a son parthenogenetically meaning virgin birth, much

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Speaker 1: like an island stranded komodo dragon. And this son that

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Speaker 1: she gave birth to was no as Pontus, and he

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Speaker 1: became her counterpart. She was the personification of the Earth

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Speaker 1: and Pontus was the personification of the ocean. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: this is the sort of thing is not uncommon among

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Speaker 1: primordial mythic beings. Uh. So, then together Guya and her

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Speaker 1: son Pontus conceived more children, including the two figures who

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Speaker 1: would become the parents of Medusa. And these figures were

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Speaker 1: focus the sea god, who Homer called the Old Man

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Speaker 1: of the Sea. He's sometimes depicted with claws. He was

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Speaker 1: generally kind of a fishman, crab person type thing. So

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Speaker 1: it's kind of like the Crabby character on a SpongeBob basically.

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Speaker 1: I'm actually not familiar with SpongeBob canon. I can't go

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Speaker 1: in there, but there's a fishman, crab person monster. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: The character is Mr Crabs who runs um runs a restaurant.

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Speaker 1: And he's voiced by Clancy Brown. Oh wow, Clancy Brown.

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Speaker 1: He was on SpongeBob. Oh yeah, he's he's a major

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Speaker 1: part of it. Well, I'm glad to hear he's doing voicework. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he has a great voice. It's a great to see that.

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Speaker 1: You know, he lends it to a number of different projects. Okay,

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Speaker 1: so we gotta focus the Old Man of the Sea.

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Speaker 1: And then on the other hand, we've got Ketto or Keto,

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Speaker 1: which is where we get our classic terminology for whales,

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Speaker 1: the idea of the ketas or the SETAs, and and

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Speaker 1: Keto was a giant sea monster and together focus and

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Speaker 1: Ketto produced a whole mess of monsters from their union.

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Speaker 1: So first of all, you've got the gray and this

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Speaker 1: is a set of triplets who were all born with

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Speaker 1: gray hair. They're described as hags who share one eye

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Speaker 1: and one tooth between the three of them, and their

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Speaker 1: gray hair was believed to embody the foam of heavy

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Speaker 1: seas during a storm. Yeah. They are often depicted in

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Speaker 1: TV and film adaptations of them De Deuce's story. You

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Speaker 1: see them in Clash of the Titans, Hintson, Percy Jackson

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Speaker 1: and others. My son is really into them, and the

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Speaker 1: other day he quizzed me on what their names were,

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Speaker 1: at which I had no idea, uh, but then he

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Speaker 1: spouted them off. They are Dino, Inyo and the Fredo.

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Speaker 1: When there are three anyway, so in some tellings there

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Speaker 1: are only two. Yeah, and I think their names I

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Speaker 1: don't recall exactly what they translate to, but they have

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Speaker 1: something to do with the qualities of the sea. Their

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Speaker 1: names translate to things like depth and terror and stuff. Now,

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Speaker 1: another offspring of this union of of Forcus and Kato

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Speaker 1: or Quito is Thusa, who became the mother of Polyphemus.

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Speaker 1: Polyphemus of course, is the Cyclops in the Odyssey who

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Speaker 1: discus stabs in the eye. Uh. And then you've got

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Speaker 1: a kidna, the she Viper. This is a woman who

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Speaker 1: was half snake. Yeah. And sometimes she's credited as being

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Speaker 1: the mother of Monsters and other tellings, mother of Medusa

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Speaker 1: even and I guess you know, there's a little bit

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Speaker 1: of a kidna in the recreation of of of the

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Speaker 1: gorgon Ian Clash of the Titans Ray Harry Housen's fabulous sequence.

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Speaker 1: Oh is she half snake in that? Yeah? She's she's

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Speaker 1: depicted as being um a snake from the waist down,

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Speaker 1: you know, having been kind of a serpentine centaur uh

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Speaker 1: and and then being more traditionally a gorgon from the

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Speaker 1: waist up, but without the wings. Okay. So another one

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Speaker 1: of the offspring here is one that's familiar to us,

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Speaker 1: is going to be Scilla, the the sea monster with

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Speaker 1: many heads, who swallowed sailors who came too close to

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Speaker 1: her rocks. And she's classically the counterpart of Charybdis. Right,

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Speaker 1: So you've got this pair of hazards in the ocean

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Speaker 1: that is difficult to thread a pathway through. Charybdis of course,

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Speaker 1: is like a whirlpool. Yeah, and then, of course, finally

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Speaker 1: you've got the Gorgons, and the Gorgon's are a trio

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Speaker 1: of sisters whose name comes from the word gor ghos,

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Speaker 1: which means frightening or terrifying. Medusa is one of the

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Speaker 1: three Gorgon sisters. The names of the other two are

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Speaker 1: Thinno and Urially, and curiously, we are told by multiple

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Speaker 1: ancient sources that while the other two Gorgon sisters are immortal, tragically,

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Speaker 1: Medusa is not immortal. Hes He had writ specifically that

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Speaker 1: her fate was a sad one, for she was mortal,

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Speaker 1: though it's I'm not sure if it's ever explained anywhere

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Speaker 1: why specifically she and only she was mortal. Yeah, nothing

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Speaker 1: ever seems, at least in anything I've read, seems to

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Speaker 1: be really made of that fact. Like it's not like, oh, well,

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Speaker 1: that means that Perseus is forever hounded by these immortal

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Speaker 1: gore guns or anything like that. It's just kind of

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Speaker 1: here's the facts. It seems like one of those things

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Speaker 1: that might have been when people were trying to stitch

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Speaker 1: together disparate versions of a of a myth cycle that

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Speaker 1: that had incompatible facts. You might just paper that over

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Speaker 1: by inserting a little like, by the way, she was

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Speaker 1: mortal for some reason. Yeah, yeah, if someone was like,

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Speaker 1: well I thought they were immortal. No, No, she was mortal,

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Speaker 1: so she's dead. She was the only one though. Yeah. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: according to a fragmentary document called the Shield of Heracles,

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Speaker 1: the three Gorgon sisters would talk about with serpents hanging

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Speaker 1: from their girdles. So imagine a kind of Batman utility built,

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Speaker 1: but all the pouches are replaced with snakes, and the

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Speaker 1: belt snakes would lear and they would flick their tongues

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Speaker 1: that anyone who beheld them. Yeah, and I have to

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Speaker 1: say depictions of this are cooler and grizzly are looking

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Speaker 1: than it sounds, because that sounds cool enough for you. Well, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I know it doesn't sound cool when I read it initially,

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Speaker 1: because it's like, oh, and that she had they had

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Speaker 1: snakes for belts. That just sounds kind of, I don't know,

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Speaker 1: kind of lame. But then you see an image and

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Speaker 1: it's like these snakes you're hanging off and you know,

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Speaker 1: and maybe writhing a bit, and there's there's perhaps a

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Speaker 1: sense of the we won't get into this until the

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Speaker 1: second episode. But uh, you know, you get into some

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Speaker 1: of these Freudian concepts of what Medusa is all about,

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Speaker 1: and you look at an image like that and you

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Speaker 1: can you can see it. But again, more on that

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Speaker 1: in the second episode. Yeah, it should not come as

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Speaker 1: a surprise that some people, especially Freud, read a lot

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Speaker 1: of genital sygnificance into the depiction of the snake bearing sisters.

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Speaker 1: Here now, writing of the three Gorgon sisters, Apollodorus says

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Speaker 1: that their heads were twined about with the scales of dragons,

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Speaker 1: and that they had golden wings or I've also seen

385
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Speaker 1: it said sometimes bronze wings, and also great tusks, like

386
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Speaker 1: a swine's tusks. Yeah, those wings are often forgotten in

387
00:21:25,720 --> 00:21:29,399
Speaker 1: art and you know, other depictions, cinematic or otherwise. I

388
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Speaker 1: think in part because that's just one more thing you

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Speaker 1: have to try and bring to life, either with effects

390
00:21:35,080 --> 00:21:38,520
Speaker 1: or otherwise. Though Hinson does have the wings in his version.

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Speaker 1: I think also sometimes, as with the Clash adaptation, there's

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Speaker 1: an attempt to focus more on those serpentine details, you know,

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Speaker 1: like people want hybrid city, but they don't want to

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Speaker 1: deal with a chimera um uh, you know, generally speaking, chimera.

395
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Speaker 1: Of course, for the most part, you don't see a

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Speaker 1: lot of like cinematic adaptations of the mythical chimera either.

397
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Speaker 1: We want half and half, we don't want uh you know,

398
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Speaker 1: three different types of animal physiologies merged together. Well, yeah,

399
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Speaker 1: I mean, I want, at what point do you start

400
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Speaker 1: pushing from minimally counterintuitive into just like too complicated, too weird? Yeah, yeah,

401
00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:15,720
Speaker 1: I think that's a big part of it too. Yeah.

402
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:19,320
Speaker 1: So anyway, you've got these three terrifying sisters, all with

403
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Speaker 1: snakes of England. They've got scaly dragon heads, they've got

404
00:22:23,080 --> 00:22:28,080
Speaker 1: wild boar tusks and huge metal wings. And in this telling,

405
00:22:28,280 --> 00:22:32,800
Speaker 1: Medusa is quite clearly a primordial monster, right, She's ancient.

406
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Speaker 1: She springs from a line of beings with deep roots

407
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Speaker 1: in the earth and sea and natural forces. And it's

408
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Speaker 1: in this version of Medusa it's easy to see similarities

409
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Speaker 1: here with other primordial monster gods who embody or spring

410
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Speaker 1: from embodiments, especially of the sea, right like Tia Mott,

411
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Speaker 1: the saltwater dragon of ancient Babylonian myth, particularly in the

412
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Speaker 1: Uma a leash who spits poison and death upon the

413
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Speaker 1: world to create. It's creatures that are kind of xenomorph

414
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Speaker 1: like in that they have acid for blood. Yeah. And

415
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Speaker 1: I think in all this to remembering the salt water

416
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Speaker 1: origin of these creatures, we have to remember the you know,

417
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Speaker 1: the importance of sailing and fishing in the Mesopotamian and

418
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Speaker 1: in the know, the Greek world that we're discussing here,

419
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Speaker 1: like the terror of the sea, the risks of the sea,

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Speaker 1: the unknown depths of the sea, you know, all of

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Speaker 1: these impacting the psyche and the creativity of of of

422
00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:33,760
Speaker 1: early people. Well, I think it's no coincidence that Poseidon

423
00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:37,280
Speaker 1: is maybe the most like cruel and capricious and bad

424
00:23:37,280 --> 00:23:40,840
Speaker 1: tempered of all the Olympian gods, right because the sea

425
00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:43,560
Speaker 1: is a place of great bounty and promise, but it's

426
00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:47,160
Speaker 1: also full of chaos and death and and it can't

427
00:23:47,160 --> 00:23:49,639
Speaker 1: be it can't necessarily be predicted. The sea itself is

428
00:23:49,720 --> 00:23:54,560
Speaker 1: bad tempered. Yeah. Yeah, it really cannot be trusted. Uh.

429
00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:57,840
Speaker 1: And you see that with with arguably with the gods

430
00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:00,520
Speaker 1: in general, but especially with Poseidon. But Okay, that's the

431
00:24:00,600 --> 00:24:04,960
Speaker 1: version of Medusa where she she's from this primordial lineage

432
00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:09,760
Speaker 1: of ancient creatures and monsters there are other tellings in

433
00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:13,800
Speaker 1: which it seems like Medusa was once maybe a human

434
00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:18,040
Speaker 1: or at least something more vaguely humanoid like. One of

435
00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:21,120
Speaker 1: the main examples is the version of the Medusa myth

436
00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:24,920
Speaker 1: that we get presented in Ovid's Metamorphoses, which is probably

437
00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:27,600
Speaker 1: the most familiar version of the myth to us today,

438
00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:30,960
Speaker 1: probably the most canonical version, and in this it says

439
00:24:31,040 --> 00:24:35,200
Speaker 1: that Medusa was once a beautiful young woman with many suitors.

440
00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:38,840
Speaker 1: She was widely admired for her beauty and her glamorous hair.

441
00:24:39,520 --> 00:24:43,840
Speaker 1: Um Avid writes, quote, Medusa once had charms to gain

442
00:24:43,920 --> 00:24:47,840
Speaker 1: her love a rival crowd of envious lovers strove they

443
00:24:47,880 --> 00:24:50,440
Speaker 1: who have seen her own they ne'er did trace more

444
00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:54,159
Speaker 1: moving features in a sweeter face. Yet above all her

445
00:24:54,280 --> 00:24:58,080
Speaker 1: length of hair they own in golden ringlets, waved and

446
00:24:58,160 --> 00:25:01,639
Speaker 1: graceful shown. So the this goes very much against like

447
00:25:01,720 --> 00:25:04,600
Speaker 1: the the version of Medusa we were just talking about,

448
00:25:04,640 --> 00:25:07,679
Speaker 1: who's like this, uh, you know who, who's sort of

449
00:25:07,920 --> 00:25:11,840
Speaker 1: monster to the core and monster from the beginning. But

450
00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:15,760
Speaker 1: in this version of the story, tragically Medusa catches the

451
00:25:15,800 --> 00:25:19,840
Speaker 1: attention of the cruel and violent god Poseidon, the lord

452
00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:22,919
Speaker 1: of the sea, the commander of natural disaster is like

453
00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:27,320
Speaker 1: earthquakes and storms. And in Avid's telling, Poseidon comes down

454
00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:30,159
Speaker 1: to the earth and he rapes Medusa in the midst

455
00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:34,280
Speaker 1: of the temple of Pallas Athena, the virgin goddess of wisdom.

456
00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:38,480
Speaker 1: And this attack represents a desecration of Athena's temple. And

457
00:25:38,520 --> 00:25:43,359
Speaker 1: so because her sacred home is defiled, Athena becomes furious.

458
00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:45,280
Speaker 1: And you, you, of course, do not want to be

459
00:25:45,320 --> 00:25:48,800
Speaker 1: on Athena's bad side. After the attack is over, Athena

460
00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:53,440
Speaker 1: takes out her revenge horribly, not on her uncle Poseidon,

461
00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:58,720
Speaker 1: but on Medusa. Yeah, it's as if Poseidon is is

462
00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:01,240
Speaker 1: kind of untouchable and us, Yeah, based one of the

463
00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:04,000
Speaker 1: Big Three after all. And uh, you know, I think

464
00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:08,520
Speaker 1: Arachne would remind us that the gods as a whole

465
00:26:08,560 --> 00:26:12,800
Speaker 1: are cruel and violent. You might remember, listeners, Arachne was

466
00:26:12,880 --> 00:26:17,040
Speaker 1: turned into a spider for disrespecting the gods, namely Athena,

467
00:26:17,240 --> 00:26:23,720
Speaker 1: of whom she lost a weaving contest to um. But yeah, this, this,

468
00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:29,600
Speaker 1: this particular telling of god and possibly mortal interactions really

469
00:26:29,640 --> 00:26:33,639
Speaker 1: smacks of cruelty. I should note a couple of things here, now, Uh,

470
00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:37,800
Speaker 1: Ovid chiefly contributes or at least records, the sexual assault

471
00:26:37,800 --> 00:26:41,199
Speaker 1: aspect of this story in the classical tradition, while Hesiod

472
00:26:41,520 --> 00:26:45,399
Speaker 1: and uh Apahollodorus keep it at lay with you know,

473
00:26:45,440 --> 00:26:49,760
Speaker 1: they lay together, and and uh and that offended Athena,

474
00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:52,440
Speaker 1: while others tellers of the tale have described the union

475
00:26:52,480 --> 00:26:56,840
Speaker 1: as an act of seduction, such as folklore Carol Rose. Now,

476
00:26:56,880 --> 00:26:59,600
Speaker 1: I don't know how much of that is just sanitizing

477
00:26:59,640 --> 00:27:01,399
Speaker 1: it again, a little bit like we've said, you know,

478
00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:05,040
Speaker 1: you don't taking some of the more horrific details out

479
00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:10,080
Speaker 1: of the story for specially younger readers. Um, but uh,

480
00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:13,800
Speaker 1: I just I thought that was important to note. Apollodorus, however,

481
00:27:14,280 --> 00:27:18,320
Speaker 1: added the wrinkle that Medusa had previously claimed that her

482
00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:22,000
Speaker 1: beauty matched that of Athena. So we get into territory

483
00:27:22,080 --> 00:27:24,640
Speaker 1: where from the point of view of the gods, this

484
00:27:24,760 --> 00:27:27,720
Speaker 1: is just mortals paying for their vanity one more time,

485
00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:31,520
Speaker 1: so that it's not just Athena is blaming the victim

486
00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:34,520
Speaker 1: for the crime, but Athena also has it in for

487
00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:37,840
Speaker 1: the victim because she previously had the gall to say

488
00:27:37,840 --> 00:27:41,119
Speaker 1: that she was on Athena's level. Yeah, exactly, And and

489
00:27:41,160 --> 00:27:44,560
Speaker 1: so Athena, she turns her fury against Medusa. Here of

490
00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:48,400
Speaker 1: it again, writes the bashful goddess that's talking about Athena.

491
00:27:48,400 --> 00:27:51,800
Speaker 1: The bashful goddess turned her eyes away nor during such

492
00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:56,359
Speaker 1: bold impurity survey. But on the ravished virgin vengeance takes

493
00:27:56,400 --> 00:28:00,520
Speaker 1: her shining hair is changed to hissing snakes. These in

494
00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:04,280
Speaker 1: her aegis Palace joys to bear the hissing snakes, her

495
00:28:04,320 --> 00:28:07,800
Speaker 1: foes more sure and snare than they did lovers once

496
00:28:07,920 --> 00:28:12,560
Speaker 1: when shining hair. It's interesting that he describes Athena as bactful. Uh,

497
00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:16,600
Speaker 1: it's not great first description when it comes to mind. Yeah, well,

498
00:28:16,640 --> 00:28:19,280
Speaker 1: I mean there's this weird thing the way Athena is

499
00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:21,919
Speaker 1: depicted as I mean, it's often emphasized that she is

500
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:24,800
Speaker 1: like there's something pure about her, that she is the

501
00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:29,520
Speaker 1: virgin goddess, they say, um and so, so that's sometimes

502
00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:33,000
Speaker 1: described as this weird quality of like shyness or something.

503
00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:36,720
Speaker 1: But of course we know that Athena is quite bold

504
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:40,560
Speaker 1: and quite powerful and has great uh wisdom and strength

505
00:28:40,600 --> 00:28:43,560
Speaker 1: and rage and you do not want to be her enemy. Yeah.

506
00:28:43,840 --> 00:28:47,160
Speaker 1: I hope she didn't listen to the podcast. I don't

507
00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:50,160
Speaker 1: know if we're really portraying her in the best light here. Now,

508
00:28:50,320 --> 00:28:51,720
Speaker 1: not a lot of the gods come out of this

509
00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:55,520
Speaker 1: looking great. Um. But so anyway, this is how Medusa

510
00:28:55,560 --> 00:29:00,120
Speaker 1: becomes a monster. Athena transforms her into this hateful mockery

511
00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:03,160
Speaker 1: of her former self. She's once known for her beauty,

512
00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:06,160
Speaker 1: you know, her curly locks of hair. Now she's a

513
00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:09,959
Speaker 1: creature with slithering snakes for hair, a creature so hideous

514
00:29:10,200 --> 00:29:13,360
Speaker 1: that anyone who looks upon her would instantly be turned

515
00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:16,160
Speaker 1: to stone. Yeah, it's it's a it's a weird and

516
00:29:16,280 --> 00:29:19,000
Speaker 1: dark origin story, but you know, here we are. But

517
00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:22,360
Speaker 1: so beyond her tragic origin story, Medusa is probably best

518
00:29:22,400 --> 00:29:25,520
Speaker 1: known as the monster, the sort of dragon figure of

519
00:29:25,640 --> 00:29:28,040
Speaker 1: the Perseus myth, And so I think maybe now we

520
00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:30,560
Speaker 1: should turn to the myth of Perseus's journey. And one

521
00:29:30,600 --> 00:29:32,360
Speaker 1: of my main sources here, of course, is going to

522
00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:35,360
Speaker 1: be that book by David Lemming, which provides an excellent

523
00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:38,920
Speaker 1: overview of and synthesis of the different sources on the story.

524
00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:42,480
Speaker 1: Like a great many heroic narratives, the story of Perseus

525
00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:47,640
Speaker 1: actually begins with a miraculous conception under dire circumstances. So,

526
00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:50,640
Speaker 1: once upon a time, and the ancient Greek city of Argos,

527
00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:53,480
Speaker 1: which is on the eastern end of the Peloponnese. It's

528
00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:56,160
Speaker 1: often said to have been the oldest Greek city or

529
00:29:56,200 --> 00:29:59,200
Speaker 1: one of the oldest Greek cities. The city was ruled

530
00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:04,160
Speaker 1: by a fish and paranoid king named a Chrysis, and

531
00:30:04,240 --> 00:30:08,920
Speaker 1: a crisis had a daughter named Danny, but a Chrysis

532
00:30:09,040 --> 00:30:11,880
Speaker 1: he longs to have a son to carry on his line,

533
00:30:12,520 --> 00:30:15,680
Speaker 1: and one day a Chrysis visits an oracle to ask

534
00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:17,880
Speaker 1: whether he will ever be able to father a son,

535
00:30:18,400 --> 00:30:21,240
Speaker 1: and instead, the oracle warns him that he will not

536
00:30:21,400 --> 00:30:25,120
Speaker 1: have a son, but his daughter Danny will, and the

537
00:30:25,200 --> 00:30:29,800
Speaker 1: boy she gives birth to will one day murder him.

538
00:30:29,800 --> 00:30:32,440
Speaker 1: Now how many Greek stories start with an oracle and

539
00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:37,160
Speaker 1: then they turn out good? Yeah, it's like, why would

540
00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:40,960
Speaker 1: you visit an oracle at all? It just never works out, right,

541
00:30:40,960 --> 00:30:43,280
Speaker 1: I mean, it's always some like ironic point about trying

542
00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:45,880
Speaker 1: to avoid faith. Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's it's really

543
00:30:46,360 --> 00:30:48,800
Speaker 1: a story we continue to tell to this day. You know,

544
00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:51,600
Speaker 1: just the idea that if you, yeah, you don't really

545
00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:54,360
Speaker 1: want to know what's coming, because it's only going to

546
00:30:54,440 --> 00:30:56,160
Speaker 1: make things worse. You're not going to be able to

547
00:30:56,240 --> 00:30:59,320
Speaker 1: really duck fate or you're ye're just gonna, you know,

548
00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:02,920
Speaker 1: double down on the horrors to come. Uh yeah, it's

549
00:31:02,920 --> 00:31:05,280
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's it's one of these stories resonate

550
00:31:05,360 --> 00:31:08,720
Speaker 1: so strongly with us. Yeah. Uh So, of course, a Chrysis,

551
00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:11,240
Speaker 1: being selfish and kind of paranoid, he fears for his

552
00:31:11,280 --> 00:31:14,840
Speaker 1: own life, so he resolves to prevent the prophecy from

553
00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:19,080
Speaker 1: ever coming true. And he says, Okay, Danny right now

554
00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:21,320
Speaker 1: is childless at the time he gets the warning, she

555
00:31:21,360 --> 00:31:24,200
Speaker 1: doesn't have a son yet, and so the Chrysiest figures

556
00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:26,880
Speaker 1: he can escape his fate if he just locks her

557
00:31:26,920 --> 00:31:29,960
Speaker 1: in a prison cell forever. I've seen the prison characterized

558
00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:33,320
Speaker 1: in different ways. Sometimes it's a tower. I've seen it

559
00:31:33,480 --> 00:31:37,360
Speaker 1: elsewhere characterized as like some kind of subterranean dungeon, or

560
00:31:37,400 --> 00:31:40,800
Speaker 1: even a box of bronze. But anyway, So, of course,

561
00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:43,880
Speaker 1: the crisis believes that by imprisoning his daughter like this,

562
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:48,160
Speaker 1: she will stay childless forever. But Zeus, the king of

563
00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:51,120
Speaker 1: the gods who reigns in the sky, he sees the

564
00:31:51,160 --> 00:31:54,040
Speaker 1: young woman locked away in her prison cell, and he

565
00:31:54,160 --> 00:31:56,880
Speaker 1: comes down to her in the form of a shower

566
00:31:56,920 --> 00:32:01,040
Speaker 1: of gold from the clouds, and Danny conceives a child.

567
00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:03,880
Speaker 1: This is her child as a boy, and she gives

568
00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:07,560
Speaker 1: him the name Perseus. Uh. This part is yet another

569
00:32:07,560 --> 00:32:10,560
Speaker 1: recurring theme in Greek mythology. Of course, God coming down

570
00:32:10,640 --> 00:32:13,560
Speaker 1: and having sex with a mortal woman to father a

571
00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:17,080
Speaker 1: child to become a type of demigod or a son

572
00:32:17,120 --> 00:32:20,280
Speaker 1: of God. Here. Yeah, that's this is also one of

573
00:32:20,320 --> 00:32:23,520
Speaker 1: the key plot points in those Percy Jackson books is

574
00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:27,720
Speaker 1: that all the the the young characters are the children

575
00:32:27,720 --> 00:32:30,120
Speaker 1: of the gods that have been in the modern world

576
00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:33,240
Speaker 1: created sired the same way and kind of you know

577
00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:35,640
Speaker 1: left uh, you know, none of them have any real

578
00:32:35,680 --> 00:32:38,920
Speaker 1: connection with their divine parents and have a lot of

579
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:42,560
Speaker 1: mixed up feelings concerning them. Well yeah, I mean, the

580
00:32:42,640 --> 00:32:45,360
Speaker 1: gods do not tend to be very good parents here.

581
00:32:45,400 --> 00:32:49,720
Speaker 1: So like, so you Perseus, Now, this boy is half

582
00:32:49,800 --> 00:32:52,840
Speaker 1: human and he's half king of the gods. And so

583
00:32:53,080 --> 00:32:55,600
Speaker 1: Perseus begins to grow up in this prison cell with

584
00:32:55,680 --> 00:32:59,320
Speaker 1: his mother, and at some point a Chrisius discovers this

585
00:32:59,400 --> 00:33:03,320
Speaker 1: boy and prison with Danny and crisis. Of course, is

586
00:33:03,360 --> 00:33:06,240
Speaker 1: still in fear for his life, and so he says, okay,

587
00:33:06,280 --> 00:33:08,680
Speaker 1: I've got to I've got to be more more extreme

588
00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:12,200
Speaker 1: even now. So he has Danny and the young Perseus

589
00:33:12,360 --> 00:33:16,120
Speaker 1: locked inside a box and tossed into the ocean to die.

590
00:33:17,120 --> 00:33:20,640
Speaker 1: It's interesting. Living describes this box as quote a sort

591
00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:22,920
Speaker 1: of arc as in the Ark of the Covenant, and

592
00:33:22,960 --> 00:33:26,200
Speaker 1: indeed that's often how it is depicted, including in the

593
00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:30,800
Speaker 1: Clash of the Titan and also in that Jim Hinson adaptation. Yeah,

594
00:33:30,800 --> 00:33:33,800
Speaker 1: the strategy is often presented as a kind of indirect

595
00:33:33,960 --> 00:33:36,720
Speaker 1: murder method. It's like, hey, I didn't kill them, I

596
00:33:36,840 --> 00:33:40,600
Speaker 1: just left them to their fate. Uh. It seems like

597
00:33:40,960 --> 00:33:43,720
Speaker 1: a kind of weird moral sensibility that makes a real

598
00:33:43,760 --> 00:33:47,440
Speaker 1: distinction there. But he a lot of characters in Greek

599
00:33:47,480 --> 00:33:50,719
Speaker 1: cultures seem to think along these lines. Yeah. It's as

600
00:33:50,720 --> 00:33:53,720
Speaker 1: if to say, for legal purposes, the ocean is the

601
00:33:53,760 --> 00:34:00,240
Speaker 1: one that will murder you, right, um. Yeah, But of

602
00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:04,440
Speaker 1: course Danny and Perseus didn't die. Instead, while they're floating

603
00:34:04,440 --> 00:34:07,440
Speaker 1: around in this box, they are rescued by a fisherman

604
00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:12,399
Speaker 1: named Dictus, who is the brother of Polydectes, the king

605
00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:16,400
Speaker 1: of the island of Seraphos. And there on the island

606
00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:20,080
Speaker 1: of Seraphos, Danny and Perseus come under the protection of

607
00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:23,839
Speaker 1: Polydectes court under under the protection of his house. Now

608
00:34:23,880 --> 00:34:27,640
Speaker 1: eventually the king Polydectes here. He turns out to be

609
00:34:27,680 --> 00:34:31,360
Speaker 1: a pretty wicked king too. He decides that he wants

610
00:34:31,400 --> 00:34:35,759
Speaker 1: to marry Danny, but she refuses him, and Perseus supports

611
00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:38,799
Speaker 1: his mother in her refusal of the king's hand. So

612
00:34:38,840 --> 00:34:41,920
Speaker 1: Polydectes what he wants a way to get rid of

613
00:34:42,080 --> 00:34:45,200
Speaker 1: young Perseus, to sort of get him out of the picture,

614
00:34:45,520 --> 00:34:49,560
Speaker 1: to improve his chances of of wedding Danny. And a

615
00:34:49,680 --> 00:34:54,279
Speaker 1: great opportunity actually presents itself. Let's send Perseus out on

616
00:34:54,320 --> 00:34:58,880
Speaker 1: a suicide mission. Polydectes sends Perseus out with the task

617
00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:02,160
Speaker 1: of killing the mom Sir Medusa, who is of course

618
00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:05,360
Speaker 1: one of the dreaded Gorgon sisters, and to bring back

619
00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:08,080
Speaker 1: her severed head. Now, this version that you just said,

620
00:35:08,120 --> 00:35:10,759
Speaker 1: this makes the most sense, right, Like Percy's wants to

621
00:35:10,800 --> 00:35:14,960
Speaker 1: protect his mother, Polydectes wants to marry her, and he's like, sure,

622
00:35:15,040 --> 00:35:17,440
Speaker 1: I'll leave your your mother alone if you bring me

623
00:35:17,520 --> 00:35:21,719
Speaker 1: the head of the Medusa. Ha ha. But and the

624
00:35:21,719 --> 00:35:25,120
Speaker 1: typical version of the story is that Polydectes just demands

625
00:35:25,160 --> 00:35:28,560
Speaker 1: some fine horses, like, oh, I need some just ridiculously

626
00:35:28,640 --> 00:35:31,239
Speaker 1: nice horses. Uh, let's see you get those. And then

627
00:35:31,360 --> 00:35:34,560
Speaker 1: Perseus just leaps up like a final bidder in a

628
00:35:34,640 --> 00:35:38,440
Speaker 1: Hollywood auction scene, you know, where they just outrageously outbid

629
00:35:38,480 --> 00:35:41,960
Speaker 1: everybody by like a million dollars and gives himself the

630
00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:45,160
Speaker 1: suicide mission. He's like, I'll tell you what, I'll bring

631
00:35:45,160 --> 00:35:47,799
Speaker 1: you the head of a gorgon, and um In Polydectes

632
00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:50,919
Speaker 1: is like, okay, um, you know, I was thinking about

633
00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:52,640
Speaker 1: trying to send you on a suicide mission, but if

634
00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:55,719
Speaker 1: you just want to propose one, go for it. Um.

635
00:35:56,040 --> 00:35:59,080
Speaker 1: So he's He's of course delighted and accepts. Yeah. But

636
00:35:59,080 --> 00:36:01,759
Speaker 1: but it's like Percy's who's just who comes up with

637
00:36:01,800 --> 00:36:04,120
Speaker 1: the idea in in most of these tellings where it's

638
00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:07,760
Speaker 1: just like, i'll kill the gorgon. How about that? Yeah? So, actually,

639
00:36:07,800 --> 00:36:09,920
Speaker 1: I think the way it works as Polydectes he tries

640
00:36:09,960 --> 00:36:11,960
Speaker 1: to ruse where he says, actually, I'm not going to

641
00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:14,319
Speaker 1: marry your mom. Don't worry about it. Chill out. I'm

642
00:36:14,320 --> 00:36:17,920
Speaker 1: gonna marry some other woman. But if I marry this

643
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:20,520
Speaker 1: other lady, I'm gonna need some good Mayor's as a

644
00:36:20,520 --> 00:36:23,920
Speaker 1: wedding present. And of course Perseus what he doesn't have

645
00:36:23,960 --> 00:36:26,760
Speaker 1: any money to go out horse trading and get horses

646
00:36:26,800 --> 00:36:29,000
Speaker 1: for a wedding present, so what does he have to offer.

647
00:36:29,080 --> 00:36:32,879
Speaker 1: Basically just has his courage, so he's like, hey, hey,

648
00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:36,319
Speaker 1: I know I'll go find a prime primordial snake lady.

649
00:36:36,360 --> 00:36:39,240
Speaker 1: I'll kill her. I'll bring you her head. And again,

650
00:36:39,280 --> 00:36:42,200
Speaker 1: of course this works out great for Polydectes because Polydectes

651
00:36:42,320 --> 00:36:45,520
Speaker 1: knows that the gaze of Medusa turns men into stone.

652
00:36:45,920 --> 00:36:48,160
Speaker 1: So this is an easy way to be rid of Perseus.

653
00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:50,520
Speaker 1: Here's one less pesky kid getting in the way of

654
00:36:50,640 --> 00:36:55,959
Speaker 1: his his dating game. I mean, I criticized Perseus because hey,

655
00:36:56,040 --> 00:36:59,080
Speaker 1: it's really easy to hate perseus um based on all

656
00:36:59,080 --> 00:37:01,440
Speaker 1: the details of the story. But but I guess you

657
00:37:01,440 --> 00:37:03,520
Speaker 1: can see this as being really clever on his part

658
00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:07,239
Speaker 1: because he chooses something, He chooses a task that is

659
00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:12,880
Speaker 1: difficult enough or even seemingly impossible enough that Polydectes agrees

660
00:37:12,960 --> 00:37:17,080
Speaker 1: to it. But also he has he has enough confidence

661
00:37:17,120 --> 00:37:19,600
Speaker 1: that he can somehow pull it off, right. I mean,

662
00:37:19,640 --> 00:37:23,400
Speaker 1: I think again, one of the most common personality traits

663
00:37:23,440 --> 00:37:25,520
Speaker 1: we see in these heroes of old is just kind

664
00:37:25,560 --> 00:37:28,759
Speaker 1: of like endless confidence. You know, you should have no

665
00:37:28,840 --> 00:37:31,680
Speaker 1: reason to think that you can kill the gorgon Medusa,

666
00:37:31,760 --> 00:37:34,120
Speaker 1: but he just, yeah, I can do it. Yeah, I'll

667
00:37:34,120 --> 00:37:36,000
Speaker 1: figure it out. Stuff just kind of falls into my lap.

668
00:37:36,080 --> 00:37:39,520
Speaker 1: That's how it works. But but either way you kind

669
00:37:39,520 --> 00:37:43,160
Speaker 1: of look at it. Medusa is not even the adversary

670
00:37:43,280 --> 00:37:46,000
Speaker 1: that is thrust upon him by a cruel king, which

671
00:37:46,040 --> 00:37:47,840
Speaker 1: is which is what we see like saying the Labors

672
00:37:47,840 --> 00:37:51,120
Speaker 1: of Hercules. She is instead just out there on the

673
00:37:51,200 --> 00:37:55,400
Speaker 1: edge of the world, minding her own business, already punished harshly,

674
00:37:55,840 --> 00:37:59,320
Speaker 1: when percy Is simply decides that killing her would be

675
00:37:59,360 --> 00:38:02,400
Speaker 1: an ideal feet to accomplish his ends. Yeah, she's not

676
00:38:02,440 --> 00:38:05,320
Speaker 1: doing anything. It's not it's not like Baowolf, like she's

677
00:38:05,440 --> 00:38:08,359
Speaker 1: raiding the hall or something. She's just on the other

678
00:38:08,400 --> 00:38:11,200
Speaker 1: side of the world. Yeah, Like Clash of the Titans, Like,

679
00:38:11,200 --> 00:38:13,520
Speaker 1: one of the things it does is it retrofits the

680
00:38:13,560 --> 00:38:16,279
Speaker 1: story where the head of the Medusa is the thing

681
00:38:16,400 --> 00:38:20,480
Speaker 1: we need to overcome some other adversary or to get

682
00:38:20,480 --> 00:38:24,719
Speaker 1: through some some great horror that's coming um, which you know,

683
00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:27,000
Speaker 1: I think makes it a little more palpable to to

684
00:38:27,160 --> 00:38:30,440
Speaker 1: modern audiences. But again, looks like you said, we have

685
00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:33,400
Speaker 1: to we have to think about what the model of

686
00:38:33,440 --> 00:38:37,359
Speaker 1: the hero is that we're dealing with in these ancient versions. Right,

687
00:38:37,560 --> 00:38:39,000
Speaker 1: all right, we need to take a quick break, but

688
00:38:39,120 --> 00:38:44,720
Speaker 1: we'll be right back with more than and we're back.

689
00:38:45,200 --> 00:38:47,880
Speaker 1: So Percius sets out on his quest, and along the

690
00:38:47,880 --> 00:38:50,920
Speaker 1: way he's given aid by the god Hermes, who is

691
00:38:50,960 --> 00:38:53,600
Speaker 1: of course the messenger of the gods who flies between

692
00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:57,359
Speaker 1: worlds on his winged sandals, and of course also by

693
00:38:57,480 --> 00:39:01,040
Speaker 1: Athena popping back up in the story yet again to

694
00:39:01,040 --> 00:39:05,799
Speaker 1: to just never stop spitting calamity in Medusa's direction. Yeah,

695
00:39:05,880 --> 00:39:09,239
Speaker 1: as if Medusa hadn't suffered enough for angering Athena, the

696
00:39:09,280 --> 00:39:11,960
Speaker 1: gray a had goddess instantly jumps into help Perseus out

697
00:39:11,960 --> 00:39:14,960
Speaker 1: in his quest to murder her. Right, Uh, And it's

698
00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:18,719
Speaker 1: worth considering that there are sort of double alliances here. Like, first, yes,

699
00:39:19,160 --> 00:39:21,920
Speaker 1: it really does seem just kind of like Athena hates

700
00:39:21,960 --> 00:39:24,920
Speaker 1: Medusa and is always making things worse for her. But second,

701
00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:29,759
Speaker 1: also Perseus is Athena's demi god half brother. Right, they

702
00:39:29,760 --> 00:39:33,280
Speaker 1: both share Zeus as a father, and both were conceived

703
00:39:33,320 --> 00:39:38,479
Speaker 1: in these unconventional mythological ways Athena springs from the head

704
00:39:38,560 --> 00:39:41,400
Speaker 1: of Zeus. H So, I think you could see Perseus

705
00:39:41,440 --> 00:39:45,960
Speaker 1: as a kind of champion or representative of the interests

706
00:39:46,040 --> 00:39:49,560
Speaker 1: of the Olympian pantheon down here on Earth, like the

707
00:39:49,800 --> 00:39:55,080
Speaker 1: Zeus administration has as an agent on Earth Perseus, and

708
00:39:55,120 --> 00:39:56,600
Speaker 1: you're kind of going to see that in the way

709
00:39:56,719 --> 00:40:00,839
Speaker 1: that he fights against and causes trouble for these other

710
00:40:01,040 --> 00:40:05,000
Speaker 1: primordial non Olympian beings, Like the enemies of the Zeus

711
00:40:05,040 --> 00:40:09,920
Speaker 1: administration will just get endless grief from Perseus. Like Perseus,

712
00:40:09,920 --> 00:40:12,800
Speaker 1: I need you to go on Network News this evening,

713
00:40:12,880 --> 00:40:16,200
Speaker 1: just make all the rounds and just verbally attack all

714
00:40:16,239 --> 00:40:20,320
Speaker 1: of my enemies, all the all the Titans, all the monsters.

715
00:40:20,320 --> 00:40:22,840
Speaker 1: You just let them have it, right, anybody from the

716
00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:25,680
Speaker 1: line of Guia, any Titans out there, Yeah, just go

717
00:40:25,760 --> 00:40:28,560
Speaker 1: at them. But anyway, Percy, so he goes on this

718
00:40:28,640 --> 00:40:30,600
Speaker 1: journey with multiple stops, so we don't have to get

719
00:40:30,640 --> 00:40:33,120
Speaker 1: into all the stops on the journey right here, there's

720
00:40:33,120 --> 00:40:35,239
Speaker 1: some that are more Germane to what we're talking about

721
00:40:35,280 --> 00:40:37,080
Speaker 1: than others. I think, Yeah, but if we were to

722
00:40:37,120 --> 00:40:39,680
Speaker 1: make a montage on it, basically Perseus needs to I

723
00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:42,280
Speaker 1: d the Gorgon's he needs to gear up with magical

724
00:40:42,320 --> 00:40:45,000
Speaker 1: weapons to fight them, find out where they are exactly,

725
00:40:45,040 --> 00:40:47,640
Speaker 1: and of course travel there. Right. That's that's a good summary.

726
00:40:47,920 --> 00:40:51,719
Speaker 1: So at one point Perseus does encounter the three gray sisters,

727
00:40:52,040 --> 00:40:54,960
Speaker 1: the gray haired hags who share the one eye and

728
00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:59,319
Speaker 1: the one tooth between them and perseus strategy here is

729
00:40:59,440 --> 00:41:04,520
Speaker 1: quite clear, for he steals their one eye. Just seems

730
00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:07,760
Speaker 1: which just I mean, he sounds just like such a bully.

731
00:41:07,880 --> 00:41:10,319
Speaker 1: There's like three hags who share one eye, and he

732
00:41:10,360 --> 00:41:13,000
Speaker 1: takes their one eye, and he uses the eye to

733
00:41:13,040 --> 00:41:17,360
Speaker 1: get leveraged basically to leverage information out of them, specifically

734
00:41:17,400 --> 00:41:20,520
Speaker 1: about how to acquire some pieces of magic equipment that

735
00:41:20,560 --> 00:41:24,160
Speaker 1: he needs. Yeah, he's direct and to the point. Now,

736
00:41:24,239 --> 00:41:26,359
Speaker 1: I and I love how in some versions of the

737
00:41:26,360 --> 00:41:29,640
Speaker 1: tale Perseus returns their eye and tooth, because sometimes he

738
00:41:29,680 --> 00:41:33,000
Speaker 1: takes the tooth as well afterwards, and other times he

739
00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:37,080
Speaker 1: just keeps them right. And some modern tellings find a

740
00:41:37,200 --> 00:41:40,080
Speaker 1: middle ground by having him return the eye but just

741
00:41:40,120 --> 00:41:42,480
Speaker 1: like throwing it into the room somewhere where they have

742
00:41:42,520 --> 00:41:45,640
Speaker 1: to like scramble for it, So he's not being you know,

743
00:41:45,719 --> 00:41:48,720
Speaker 1: a complete meaning about it, like he's not just gonna

744
00:41:48,800 --> 00:41:51,840
Speaker 1: keep the eye forever, squash it or whatever. But he

745
00:41:51,880 --> 00:41:55,160
Speaker 1: doesn't just hand it back like okay, business concluded. I

746
00:41:55,160 --> 00:41:57,839
Speaker 1: don't know something about it just seems like so classically

747
00:41:57,880 --> 00:42:01,239
Speaker 1: bullysh It's like the bully stealing the kids glasses. It's like, oh,

748
00:42:01,320 --> 00:42:05,239
Speaker 1: four uys need his glasses. Yeah. Anyway, so we know

749
00:42:05,320 --> 00:42:07,120
Speaker 1: he's got to get this magical equipment, so we has

750
00:42:07,239 --> 00:42:09,439
Speaker 1: to go to the realm of the Nymphs to get

751
00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:12,600
Speaker 1: some of it, and he ends up acquiring a number

752
00:42:12,640 --> 00:42:15,759
Speaker 1: of powerful objects and tools to to help him in

753
00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:19,800
Speaker 1: his quest, including a pair of winged sandals, a leather

754
00:42:20,000 --> 00:42:24,200
Speaker 1: bag that's known as a kipsist, sometimes translated as a wallet,

755
00:42:24,280 --> 00:42:26,319
Speaker 1: but I think this is best understood as like a

756
00:42:26,320 --> 00:42:31,200
Speaker 1: sack of some kind, a helmet from hades that confers

757
00:42:31,280 --> 00:42:37,440
Speaker 1: the power of invisibility, a magic sickle made of unbreakable adamantine,

758
00:42:37,840 --> 00:42:41,239
Speaker 1: and a shield that is so well polished that its

759
00:42:41,280 --> 00:42:44,440
Speaker 1: face is as a mirror. I mean, he really gears

760
00:42:44,480 --> 00:42:46,160
Speaker 1: up for this quest, and the thing is like, if

761
00:42:46,200 --> 00:42:48,520
Speaker 1: these are magical items, if this was dungeons and dragons,

762
00:42:49,160 --> 00:42:50,960
Speaker 1: I don't think he'd even be able to attune to

763
00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:55,840
Speaker 1: this many items. I think there's like a three attunement limit. Uh.

764
00:42:55,920 --> 00:42:59,400
Speaker 1: And he's just like just just geared up to the gills,

765
00:42:59,520 --> 00:43:02,960
Speaker 1: which high power magical items in video game terms. I

766
00:43:03,040 --> 00:43:06,680
Speaker 1: was thinking this might be described as over leveling. Yes,

767
00:43:08,480 --> 00:43:12,200
Speaker 1: but anyway, once he has all the weapons he needs, uh,

768
00:43:12,239 --> 00:43:15,280
Speaker 1: and once he discovers where he needs to go, percy

769
00:43:15,320 --> 00:43:18,840
Speaker 1: As uses the winged Sandals to fly to the dwelling

770
00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:21,799
Speaker 1: place of the Gorgon's which is someplace out at the

771
00:43:21,920 --> 00:43:24,759
Speaker 1: edge of the world. Yeah. I love how Limbing describes

772
00:43:24,960 --> 00:43:28,200
Speaker 1: this place is a quote a kind of underworld at

773
00:43:28,200 --> 00:43:31,920
Speaker 1: the end of the ocean. Yeah. In more rationalist accounts,

774
00:43:31,920 --> 00:43:34,759
Speaker 1: it's described as a place kind of far out to

775
00:43:34,840 --> 00:43:38,080
Speaker 1: the west, like a series of islands in the Atlantic Ocean.

776
00:43:38,520 --> 00:43:42,840
Speaker 1: But wherever this otherworldly places. Once he gets there, Perseus

777
00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:46,560
Speaker 1: knows he remembers in advance that he cannot look at

778
00:43:46,560 --> 00:43:49,560
Speaker 1: Medusa or he will be turned to stone, so he

779
00:43:49,680 --> 00:43:53,719
Speaker 1: uses the mirror faced shield to see her as he

780
00:43:53,880 --> 00:43:57,239
Speaker 1: sneaks up upon the sisters while they're sleeping, And they're

781
00:43:57,280 --> 00:44:00,440
Speaker 1: sleeping among a garden of stones that are currently the

782
00:44:00,480 --> 00:44:04,000
Speaker 1: remains of men and animals who once looked Medusa in

783
00:44:04,040 --> 00:44:07,680
Speaker 1: the eye. Yeah, and this is a haunting uh setting

784
00:44:07,880 --> 00:44:10,520
Speaker 1: that that is really brought to wonderful life. And in

785
00:44:10,640 --> 00:44:13,440
Speaker 1: some of these adaptations again that the clash of the

786
00:44:13,440 --> 00:44:17,680
Speaker 1: Titans uh sequence with Perseus and Medusa is just uh

787
00:44:17,960 --> 00:44:21,279
Speaker 1: so wonderfully brought to life totally though. One of the

788
00:44:21,280 --> 00:44:23,799
Speaker 1: things that again it's like how it gets adapted to

789
00:44:23,840 --> 00:44:27,840
Speaker 1: our modern sensibilities. Modern adaptations tend to make it some

790
00:44:27,920 --> 00:44:31,200
Speaker 1: kind of heroic fight against this threatening enemy. I mean

791
00:44:31,320 --> 00:44:33,759
Speaker 1: in the story, he sneaks up on the sisters while

792
00:44:33,760 --> 00:44:37,960
Speaker 1: they're sleeping, you know, they're they're taking a nap, and

793
00:44:38,080 --> 00:44:41,640
Speaker 1: Perseus comes up to Medusa and uses the magic sickle

794
00:44:41,760 --> 00:44:44,040
Speaker 1: to chop off her head and then put it in

795
00:44:44,080 --> 00:44:47,080
Speaker 1: a leather sack. Yeah, and then run before the other

796
00:44:47,080 --> 00:44:49,520
Speaker 1: two Organs can really do much about it. Which, yeah,

797
00:44:49,520 --> 00:44:52,440
Speaker 1: it doesn't. It's not very cinematic, it's not very um,

798
00:44:52,760 --> 00:44:55,799
Speaker 1: it's not intense. You know. The the Ray Harry House

799
00:44:55,840 --> 00:44:58,680
Speaker 1: and sequence, for instance, makes it where it's more like

800
00:44:58,719 --> 00:45:03,240
Speaker 1: Perseus is hunted by the monster because that ultimately creates

801
00:45:03,239 --> 00:45:05,600
Speaker 1: more tension you know, for our for us is as

802
00:45:05,640 --> 00:45:10,160
Speaker 1: viewers and resonates more with with our our modern expectations. Uh,

803
00:45:10,160 --> 00:45:12,680
Speaker 1: but but not so much with like the role of

804
00:45:12,719 --> 00:45:16,600
Speaker 1: the Greek hero. Yeah. So Strangely, when Medusa has killed,

805
00:45:16,800 --> 00:45:20,120
Speaker 1: it's noted that a couple of mythical beings just sort

806
00:45:20,160 --> 00:45:22,799
Speaker 1: of erupt out of her dead body. One of them

807
00:45:22,880 --> 00:45:25,960
Speaker 1: is the winged horse Pegasus, and the other is a

808
00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:29,319
Speaker 1: warrior known as Chris or Yeah, who, by the way,

809
00:45:29,320 --> 00:45:32,680
Speaker 1: would himself go on to father the three headed monster. Garon.

810
00:45:33,040 --> 00:45:35,840
Speaker 1: The Limbing notes that there's some indication that Medusa somehow

811
00:45:36,360 --> 00:45:42,040
Speaker 1: unnaturally birthed these creatures via the parentage of Poseidon. Fair enough,

812
00:45:42,120 --> 00:45:44,520
Speaker 1: I mean, we're up to our waist in a in

813
00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:46,839
Speaker 1: a pretty weird story. That doesn't really make it too

814
00:45:46,880 --> 00:45:50,200
Speaker 1: much weirder, uh to imagine that. For some reason, when

815
00:45:50,200 --> 00:45:53,480
Speaker 1: I was reading about this, I was reminded so much

816
00:45:53,480 --> 00:45:56,480
Speaker 1: of the ending of The Fly Too, where where like

817
00:45:56,719 --> 00:45:59,400
Speaker 1: the monster is kind of defeated and you end up

818
00:45:59,400 --> 00:46:01,960
Speaker 1: with like two entities emerging from it. Though in that

819
00:46:02,160 --> 00:46:04,319
Speaker 1: like one is pure and one is monstrous, and this

820
00:46:04,360 --> 00:46:08,040
Speaker 1: one like both are beautiful, Like it's a seemingly normal

821
00:46:08,400 --> 00:46:12,920
Speaker 1: humanoid hero and a beautiful flying horse. So I don't know,

822
00:46:13,360 --> 00:46:15,680
Speaker 1: you know, the original Fly, I just realized would fit

823
00:46:15,760 --> 00:46:19,080
Speaker 1: in quite well with a of its metamorphoses. Right, It's

824
00:46:19,120 --> 00:46:21,480
Speaker 1: a story about a change in the body brought on

825
00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:25,400
Speaker 1: by Hubris. Oh man, that's perfect anyway. So back to

826
00:46:25,440 --> 00:46:28,279
Speaker 1: Perseus a Medusa. So Medusa is dead, head chopped off.

827
00:46:28,360 --> 00:46:30,760
Speaker 1: Perseus has got it, and he crams the head into

828
00:46:30,760 --> 00:46:35,279
Speaker 1: the bag into the Kivisus and now Medusa's Gorgon's sisters

829
00:46:35,520 --> 00:46:38,360
Speaker 1: thin Oh and your Reality. They are awakened, and of

830
00:46:38,400 --> 00:46:41,439
Speaker 1: course they become enraged because they see their sister dead,

831
00:46:41,719 --> 00:46:44,319
Speaker 1: and they give chase, trying to kill the boy. But

832
00:46:44,480 --> 00:46:47,720
Speaker 1: fortunately Perseus still has some gear. He uses the helm

833
00:46:47,760 --> 00:46:52,000
Speaker 1: of invisibility and the winged Sandals to escape them. Now

834
00:46:52,080 --> 00:46:55,120
Speaker 1: Medusa is dead, and the story is far from over.

835
00:46:55,840 --> 00:46:58,400
Speaker 1: On the journey home with the Gorgon's head in the sack,

836
00:46:58,760 --> 00:47:02,680
Speaker 1: Perseus stops to take part in several other adventures. A

837
00:47:02,719 --> 00:47:04,480
Speaker 1: major one that we're not going to get into in

838
00:47:04,560 --> 00:47:06,960
Speaker 1: depth is uh this part of the story where he

839
00:47:07,040 --> 00:47:10,960
Speaker 1: rescues a princess named Andromeda from a dragon and ends

840
00:47:11,040 --> 00:47:14,240
Speaker 1: up marrying her, but also as part of the story

841
00:47:14,280 --> 00:47:17,400
Speaker 1: where where the head of Medusa becomes very relevant. Perseus

842
00:47:17,440 --> 00:47:21,280
Speaker 1: comes across Atlas Atlas is of course a a Titan.

843
00:47:21,400 --> 00:47:23,360
Speaker 1: You know, he was one of the original race of

844
00:47:23,400 --> 00:47:26,160
Speaker 1: Titans that were defeated in a war by the gods

845
00:47:26,280 --> 00:47:29,040
Speaker 1: led by Zeus, and so now he's the sort of

846
00:47:29,080 --> 00:47:32,719
Speaker 1: like defeated prisoner of war type figure who is tortured

847
00:47:32,760 --> 00:47:36,280
Speaker 1: after losing this war by the gods by being forced

848
00:47:36,320 --> 00:47:40,279
Speaker 1: to hold up the sky for eternity. And when Perseus

849
00:47:40,360 --> 00:47:44,359
Speaker 1: arrives in Atlas's lands, Atlas is obviously not a fan

850
00:47:44,480 --> 00:47:46,759
Speaker 1: of course. First of all, Atlas is suffering after his

851
00:47:46,880 --> 00:47:49,880
Speaker 1: people lost this war to Zeus, and Perseus claims Zeus

852
00:47:49,960 --> 00:47:52,600
Speaker 1: is his father. Second, like, who is this kid with

853
00:47:52,640 --> 00:47:56,880
Speaker 1: a bloody leather bag? But uh so, because he feels

854
00:47:56,960 --> 00:48:00,799
Speaker 1: not welcomed by Atlas, Perseus pulls the severed head of

855
00:48:00,800 --> 00:48:03,520
Speaker 1: Medusa out of the bag and shows it to Atlas.

856
00:48:03,880 --> 00:48:06,600
Speaker 1: Atlas looks on the head and he turns to stone,

857
00:48:06,760 --> 00:48:10,960
Speaker 1: and in this form, Atlas becomes a mountain range that

858
00:48:11,040 --> 00:48:14,640
Speaker 1: holds up the sky. Then, when Percy has finally arrives

859
00:48:14,680 --> 00:48:18,480
Speaker 1: back home with his bride Andromeda, he uses Medusa's head

860
00:48:18,640 --> 00:48:22,400
Speaker 1: to turn the wicked king Polydectes and his servants into stone,

861
00:48:22,800 --> 00:48:26,080
Speaker 1: and he sets his mother free. So really, Percy's is

862
00:48:26,120 --> 00:48:28,680
Speaker 1: just going on a freaking rampage with the Gorgon's head,

863
00:48:28,800 --> 00:48:33,640
Speaker 1: just petrifying anyone he likes, even a Titan before finally, uh,

864
00:48:33,760 --> 00:48:36,480
Speaker 1: you know, eventually handing it back, in which we'll get

865
00:48:36,520 --> 00:48:39,759
Speaker 1: to uh fun fact um. Atlas shows up in that

866
00:48:39,880 --> 00:48:43,800
Speaker 1: Hintson adaptation and played by none other than Pat Roach.

867
00:48:44,239 --> 00:48:47,080
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Pat Pat Roach of course played the bald

868
00:48:47,239 --> 00:48:52,480
Speaker 1: Nazi that Indiana Jones fights uh in front of the

869
00:48:51,800 --> 00:48:55,239
Speaker 1: uh the airplane and Greater the Lost Art gets turned

870
00:48:55,239 --> 00:48:58,200
Speaker 1: into propeller soup. Yeah, yeah, he plays uh. Oh, he's

871
00:48:58,200 --> 00:49:01,160
Speaker 1: in like Conan the Barberry and well no, he's encoding

872
00:49:01,200 --> 00:49:04,880
Speaker 1: the Destroyer. Uh, he's in that. Um. He is also

873
00:49:04,920 --> 00:49:08,000
Speaker 1: in Clash of the Titan where he plays the Festus

874
00:49:08,040 --> 00:49:11,200
Speaker 1: and of course his background was British professional wrestling, so

875
00:49:11,520 --> 00:49:13,960
Speaker 1: he's quite an interesting fellow. Now in the hints And

876
00:49:14,120 --> 00:49:16,640
Speaker 1: version of the story, they change it so they don't

877
00:49:16,640 --> 00:49:19,279
Speaker 1: they don't make Percy is so vindictive, and they don't

878
00:49:19,320 --> 00:49:24,000
Speaker 1: make it like Petrofaction murder. Right. It's portrayed that Atlas

879
00:49:24,120 --> 00:49:26,959
Speaker 1: is weary of this. You know, he's tired from having

880
00:49:27,000 --> 00:49:30,320
Speaker 1: to hold up the sky and it's like, uh, Perseus

881
00:49:30,360 --> 00:49:33,960
Speaker 1: takes pity on him and turns him to stone to uh,

882
00:49:34,280 --> 00:49:36,880
Speaker 1: you know, I guess to save him his burden. Oh sweet,

883
00:49:36,920 --> 00:49:39,720
Speaker 1: it was. It was a mercy petrofaction. There was another

884
00:49:39,760 --> 00:49:42,680
Speaker 1: interesting fact that Limming mentions in his book, and that's

885
00:49:42,960 --> 00:49:46,640
Speaker 1: that the petrofaction of Polydectes and his followers might be

886
00:49:46,719 --> 00:49:50,080
Speaker 1: a type of ideological myth, the myth explaining, you know,

887
00:49:50,120 --> 00:49:52,560
Speaker 1: an origin or feature of something, and in this case,

888
00:49:52,560 --> 00:49:55,080
Speaker 1: it would be a known circle of standing stones on

889
00:49:55,120 --> 00:49:57,879
Speaker 1: the island of Seraphos. That you know, it's like, oh,

890
00:49:57,920 --> 00:50:01,120
Speaker 1: here's you know, Polydectes and his followers who were turned

891
00:50:01,120 --> 00:50:03,840
Speaker 1: to stone once. But anyway, at the end of the story,

892
00:50:04,000 --> 00:50:07,279
Speaker 1: here's where we get into some really interesting territory. Perseus

893
00:50:07,440 --> 00:50:10,239
Speaker 1: doesn't just like, you know, keep the head as a trophy.

894
00:50:10,320 --> 00:50:14,680
Speaker 1: He gives the head of Medusa to Athena and it

895
00:50:14,800 --> 00:50:20,560
Speaker 1: becomes the emblem of Athena's breastplate or shield. Now, of course,

896
00:50:20,600 --> 00:50:23,920
Speaker 1: in addition to being the goddess of wisdom, Athena was

897
00:50:23,960 --> 00:50:27,400
Speaker 1: sometimes styled to say goddess of warfare, and this, of

898
00:50:27,440 --> 00:50:31,960
Speaker 1: course becomes part of the very interesting tradition of the aegis,

899
00:50:32,360 --> 00:50:36,399
Speaker 1: the idea that both Athena and Zeus had this object

900
00:50:36,840 --> 00:50:39,840
Speaker 1: that's mentioned in ancient Greek literature all over the place,

901
00:50:40,239 --> 00:50:43,040
Speaker 1: but exactly what it is is sort of unclear. Now,

902
00:50:43,080 --> 00:50:47,560
Speaker 1: it's called an aegis. It's sometimes translated as a shield

903
00:50:47,840 --> 00:50:51,239
Speaker 1: or a breastplate or piece of armor, or some kind

904
00:50:51,280 --> 00:50:54,520
Speaker 1: of animal skin like a goat skin. Whatever it is,

905
00:50:54,600 --> 00:50:58,680
Speaker 1: it's it's some kind of protection device or some kind

906
00:50:58,680 --> 00:51:02,719
Speaker 1: of covering that the gods can hide behind or can

907
00:51:02,800 --> 00:51:07,320
Speaker 1: shield themselves with. And it has this power that's described

908
00:51:07,440 --> 00:51:12,240
Speaker 1: both as protective and as frightening, which is very interesting.

909
00:51:12,320 --> 00:51:15,319
Speaker 1: Like normally you might think of a weapon as terrifying,

910
00:51:15,800 --> 00:51:19,840
Speaker 1: but this is a terrifying shield or a terrifying covering

911
00:51:20,040 --> 00:51:23,640
Speaker 1: or piece of armor. And in many depictions, the central

912
00:51:23,800 --> 00:51:27,520
Speaker 1: visual feature of the aegis of Athena and of Zeus

913
00:51:27,560 --> 00:51:30,400
Speaker 1: becomes the head of Medusa, or at least the image

914
00:51:30,400 --> 00:51:33,160
Speaker 1: of the head of Medusa. Yeah, and this is really

915
00:51:33,160 --> 00:51:35,920
Speaker 1: one of those points where the story does seem to

916
00:51:36,000 --> 00:51:39,040
Speaker 1: just come back around to being all about Athena's rage

917
00:51:39,040 --> 00:51:42,239
Speaker 1: against Medusa, as as she accepts the whole head of

918
00:51:42,239 --> 00:51:45,279
Speaker 1: the gorgon and absorbs it into her shield or makes

919
00:51:45,320 --> 00:51:48,560
Speaker 1: her shield out of it. The less harsh interpretation of

920
00:51:48,600 --> 00:51:50,480
Speaker 1: this is that, you know, via the creation of the

921
00:51:50,480 --> 00:51:53,759
Speaker 1: Gorgon's Athena unleashed a powerful weapon on the world, and

922
00:51:53,800 --> 00:51:56,120
Speaker 1: now she has taken it back and claimed it as

923
00:51:56,120 --> 00:51:58,480
Speaker 1: her own. But I also can't help but think of

924
00:51:58,520 --> 00:52:02,040
Speaker 1: Medusa as is still being alive in some fashion, you know,

925
00:52:02,080 --> 00:52:05,000
Speaker 1: in the same way that the snakes continue to writhe

926
00:52:05,080 --> 00:52:10,000
Speaker 1: in the cinematic and artistic um depictions of Medusa's head.

927
00:52:10,480 --> 00:52:14,600
Speaker 1: So you know, it's there's even this idea that perhaps

928
00:52:14,760 --> 00:52:18,160
Speaker 1: the head is still alive as its essence is infused

929
00:52:18,200 --> 00:52:21,080
Speaker 1: into a thenis shield. And if so, it just seems

930
00:52:21,120 --> 00:52:25,160
Speaker 1: like another level of just you know, horrible God inflicted fate.

931
00:52:25,480 --> 00:52:27,960
Speaker 1: You know, speaking of fate as a coda to the story,

932
00:52:28,000 --> 00:52:33,040
Speaker 1: I should mention, of course, Perseus, Denny, and Andromeda eventually

933
00:52:33,120 --> 00:52:37,840
Speaker 1: do return to uh Denny and Perseus's home city of Argos.

934
00:52:38,320 --> 00:52:41,600
Speaker 1: And when Perseus shows back up, a Crisius remember him

935
00:52:41,600 --> 00:52:43,560
Speaker 1: from the beginning, the king didn't want to be murdered

936
00:52:43,560 --> 00:52:46,600
Speaker 1: by his grandson. Well he's just like dude, I am done,

937
00:52:46,719 --> 00:52:50,360
Speaker 1: and he just flees. He goes to another city to hide,

938
00:52:50,920 --> 00:52:53,279
Speaker 1: and later on in the city where the king goes

939
00:52:53,320 --> 00:52:56,680
Speaker 1: into hiding, Perseus just happens to show up and he

940
00:52:56,760 --> 00:52:59,719
Speaker 1: takes part in some funeral games or funeral games are

941
00:52:59,760 --> 00:53:02,240
Speaker 1: a feature of a lot of stories back then, remember

942
00:53:02,280 --> 00:53:05,000
Speaker 1: the funeral games at the death of Patroclus and the Iliad.

943
00:53:05,400 --> 00:53:08,719
Speaker 1: Funeral games include things like the throwing of the discuss.

944
00:53:08,760 --> 00:53:11,720
Speaker 1: So Perseus is like, yeah, I'll play. So he decides

945
00:53:11,800 --> 00:53:15,200
Speaker 1: to throw the discus and he accidentally hurls the discus

946
00:53:15,320 --> 00:53:19,320
Speaker 1: into his grandfather's head, killing him and proving the oracle's

947
00:53:19,360 --> 00:53:24,359
Speaker 1: prophecy true. And it has like nothing to do with

948
00:53:24,480 --> 00:53:27,279
Speaker 1: the the the adventure with the Gorgon or anything. He

949
00:53:27,400 --> 00:53:30,680
Speaker 1: just accidentally throws a disk and hits him, almost as

950
00:53:30,719 --> 00:53:35,360
Speaker 1: if someone said, storyteller, what about that that oracle and

951
00:53:35,400 --> 00:53:42,279
Speaker 1: the prophecy that you mentioned at the beginning. Oh, yeah,

952
00:53:42,280 --> 00:53:44,600
Speaker 1: he he threw a discus at a funeral game and

953
00:53:44,640 --> 00:53:46,279
Speaker 1: it hit hit him in the head. He died, after all,

954
00:53:46,280 --> 00:53:49,040
Speaker 1: he died, after all, we kid. But again, this guy's

955
00:53:49,080 --> 00:53:50,800
Speaker 1: come back to the you know, sort of the nature

956
00:53:50,800 --> 00:53:54,759
Speaker 1: of myth about like converging and uh in the absorption

957
00:53:54,840 --> 00:53:59,200
Speaker 1: of different stories and the continuing uh, you know, retinkering

958
00:53:59,400 --> 00:54:01,680
Speaker 1: of the tay ole in the myth as we as

959
00:54:01,719 --> 00:54:05,040
Speaker 1: we as we experience it. Uh So, you know, sometimes

960
00:54:05,080 --> 00:54:06,959
Speaker 1: I think there are elements like that where things don't

961
00:54:07,160 --> 00:54:10,520
Speaker 1: maybe completely come together. There's some little plot holes that

962
00:54:10,600 --> 00:54:13,920
Speaker 1: emerge that you know, sometimes other storytellers come around and

963
00:54:13,960 --> 00:54:16,879
Speaker 1: try to fill them or smooth and out. I feel

964
00:54:16,880 --> 00:54:19,080
Speaker 1: like it would be more conventional and make more sense

965
00:54:19,120 --> 00:54:21,799
Speaker 1: if like Perseus, I don't know he got out the

966
00:54:21,800 --> 00:54:24,279
Speaker 1: Medusa will say he still had the Medusa head. Maybe

967
00:54:24,320 --> 00:54:25,759
Speaker 1: he gets it out of the bag every now and

968
00:54:25,760 --> 00:54:27,920
Speaker 1: then to clean it or something, and you know, he

969
00:54:27,960 --> 00:54:29,640
Speaker 1: gets it out of the bag right at the moment

970
00:54:29,640 --> 00:54:32,320
Speaker 1: that a crisis accidentally walks into the room and sees

971
00:54:32,360 --> 00:54:34,520
Speaker 1: it and then turns to stone. You know that seems

972
00:54:34,560 --> 00:54:39,160
Speaker 1: like that would be more more connected in a holistic way. Yeah,

973
00:54:39,520 --> 00:54:41,800
Speaker 1: but you know, instead that would be nice and tragic,

974
00:54:41,800 --> 00:54:43,480
Speaker 1: would have an air of tragedy to it to a

975
00:54:43,480 --> 00:54:45,680
Speaker 1: certain extent. I mean, but then also not that much,

976
00:54:45,719 --> 00:54:49,320
Speaker 1: because the grandfather did lock his mother up in a prison,

977
00:54:49,320 --> 00:54:52,319
Speaker 1: and that's what he's a bad guy. Yeah, so yeah,

978
00:54:52,400 --> 00:54:54,800
Speaker 1: there's not you know, what what can you say is

979
00:54:54,840 --> 00:54:59,400
Speaker 1: the disc ascending supposed to be funny. Maybe it is maybe,

980
00:54:59,840 --> 00:55:03,839
Speaker 1: or you know it, it also kind of sounds like

981
00:55:04,880 --> 00:55:07,160
Speaker 1: to me, this is just me spitballing here. This is

982
00:55:07,160 --> 00:55:10,799
Speaker 1: nothing that lembiting argues. But it also has the smack of, say,

983
00:55:10,840 --> 00:55:14,880
Speaker 1: a story that originally didn't have any of that middle stuff. Like,

984
00:55:14,960 --> 00:55:17,839
Speaker 1: let me tell you the story about a king who

985
00:55:17,840 --> 00:55:21,240
Speaker 1: heard that his grandson would kill him. So he, uh,

986
00:55:21,320 --> 00:55:23,360
Speaker 1: he didn't let his daughter out of a box. She

987
00:55:23,440 --> 00:55:25,160
Speaker 1: had a son anyway, so he threw him in another box,

988
00:55:25,160 --> 00:55:27,280
Speaker 1: threw him in the ocean. They and they were lost

989
00:55:27,320 --> 00:55:29,480
Speaker 1: for years and years. Then they came back. He was

990
00:55:29,520 --> 00:55:31,399
Speaker 1: in a funeral game through a discus and he died.

991
00:55:31,800 --> 00:55:33,760
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not I'm not saying that's a great story,

992
00:55:34,080 --> 00:55:36,400
Speaker 1: but at least it's it gets to the end a

993
00:55:36,440 --> 00:55:40,920
Speaker 1: little quicker. But instead we have this whole additional story

994
00:55:41,040 --> 00:55:43,239
Speaker 1: that ends up sandwiched in the middle. You know, it

995
00:55:43,280 --> 00:55:46,600
Speaker 1: actually forms a very similar kind of bracket to the

996
00:55:46,640 --> 00:55:49,200
Speaker 1: bracketing in the narrative of Jason and the Argonauts, right

997
00:55:49,200 --> 00:55:50,880
Speaker 1: where like, you know, he goes on a journey in

998
00:55:50,920 --> 00:55:53,440
Speaker 1: the middle, but then comes back to the court situation

999
00:55:53,520 --> 00:55:56,200
Speaker 1: at the end, and and there's sort of you know,

1000
00:55:56,480 --> 00:56:00,640
Speaker 1: vengeance happens or fate is delivered. Yeah, at any rate,

1001
00:56:00,920 --> 00:56:04,360
Speaker 1: it does bring us to the end of this particular

1002
00:56:04,800 --> 00:56:08,640
Speaker 1: mythological story, and it brings us to the end of

1003
00:56:08,680 --> 00:56:13,759
Speaker 1: this episode, but not the end of our discussion of Medusa. Yeah,

1004
00:56:13,800 --> 00:56:15,759
Speaker 1: it looks like we need to call part one here.

1005
00:56:15,840 --> 00:56:17,560
Speaker 1: But next time we'll be able to come back and

1006
00:56:17,600 --> 00:56:20,680
Speaker 1: explore so many more fascinating angles on this myth. Uh.

1007
00:56:20,960 --> 00:56:25,799
Speaker 1: We'll get to talk about possible origins and aperture, pic magic, Uh,

1008
00:56:26,000 --> 00:56:29,400
Speaker 1: sort of backwards development of myths that can sometimes happen.

1009
00:56:29,680 --> 00:56:33,239
Speaker 1: We'll talk about reception history, you know, all throughout cultures

1010
00:56:33,239 --> 00:56:35,839
Speaker 1: and in different time periods. We'll talk about art, we'll

1011
00:56:35,880 --> 00:56:40,799
Speaker 1: talk about science. I'm very excited, absolutely all right. So

1012
00:56:40,920 --> 00:56:42,600
Speaker 1: in the meantime, if you want to check out other

1013
00:56:42,640 --> 00:56:44,920
Speaker 1: episodes of Stuff to Blow your mind, and we have

1014
00:56:44,960 --> 00:56:47,600
Speaker 1: done quite a few episodes about monsters and myths over

1015
00:56:47,640 --> 00:56:51,440
Speaker 1: the years, you can find us wherever you get your podcasts,

1016
00:56:51,600 --> 00:56:55,600
Speaker 1: wherever that happens to be. Help us out by rating, reviewing,

1017
00:56:55,719 --> 00:56:59,040
Speaker 1: and subscribing. Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio

1018
00:56:59,080 --> 00:57:01,719
Speaker 1: producers Seth Nay Chillis Johnson. If you would like to

1019
00:57:01,719 --> 00:57:03,920
Speaker 1: get in touch with us with feedback on this episode

1020
00:57:04,000 --> 00:57:06,200
Speaker 1: or any other, to suggest a topic for the future,

1021
00:57:06,239 --> 00:57:08,359
Speaker 1: or just to say hi. You can email us at

1022
00:57:08,760 --> 00:57:46,760
Speaker 1: contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.